Nanni Balestrini

Nanni Balestrini (Milan, 1935) is a poet, a novelist and a figurative artist. He currently lives between Paris and Rome. In the early 60s, he was one of the Italian writers published in the anthology I Novissimi (1961). During the 1960s, Balestrini contributed to founding the esthetic movement Called “Group 63”, which brought together several poets, writers and artists of the Italian new avant-garde; at that time, he was the editor of their publications. In 1963, he composed the first poem made with a computer. From 1962 to 1972, he was working for Feltrinelli, cooperating with the Marsilio publishers and editing some issues of the Cooperativa Scrittori. In 1968, Balestrini was co-founder of the “Potere operaio” political group and in 1976 was an important supporter of the Autonomia. In 1979, he was accused of membership in the guerilla and fled to Paris and later Germany. Balestrini became known by a larger public thanks to his first novel We Want Everything (Vogliamo tutto, 1971). It describes the struggles and conflicts in the car factory of FIAT. In the following years, the social movements of his time continued to be his subject. With the book The Unseen (Gli invisibili, 1987) he created a literary monument for the “Generation of 1977”. It shows the atmosphere of rapid social change during this years, concretising in house occupations, the creation of free radios and more, and also shows the considerable repression by the state of these movements. Other important works are I Furiosi, dedicated to the football supporters culture of the AC Milan, and The Editor (L’editore, 1989) dealing with Giacomo Feltrinelli. Especially in his book The Golden Horde, (L’orda d’oro, 1988) co-written with Primo Moroni, his proximity to “operaism” is obvious. His most recent novel Sandokan (2004) deals with the Camorra in Casal di Principe. He played a decisive role in the birth of culture magazines “Il Verri”, “Fifteen”, “Alfabeta”, “Zoooom.” He is also active in the field of visual arts, she has exhibited in numerous galleries in Italy and abroad, in 1993 at the Venice Biennale and in 2012 and at Documenta in Kassel.